11 June 1998
Letter from Pat Dasch, Executive Director of the National Space
Society, to the Editor of "Space News," a weekly newspaper of the
space industry, regarding Vice President Gore's proposed Triana
satellite. The letter was printed in the June 22-28, 1998
edition.

Dear "Space News"
Editor,

Dr. Johnson's article, "The Unlimited
Potential of Triana," described projected benefits of Vice
President Gore's proposed, Earth-observing mission while
conveniently avoiding the very real limiting factors surrounding
its funding, schedule and ultimate purpose.

Clues to these limits lie in the many
"could's," "can's," and "probably's" that peppered Dr. Johnson's
article. Triana's scientific value is not clear and neither is its
educational value. No one can speak in absolutes because there are
none for this non-peer reviewed program.

While the National Space Society
traditionally supports projects designed to involve our youth in
space science, significant questions remain about Triana. Would
"sequential, color" images of the Earth rotating s-l-o-w-l-y (which
it does from L1 orbit), and with most continents covered by cloud,
really be of interest to millions?

Dr. Johnson stated that "It will be
up to NASA to provide leadership and involve other federal agencies
in the development of a Triana educational strategic plan." But
where is NASA to find the resources to undertake this task? What
other programs will be cut to fund the project, to develop the
curriculum and the materials that are critical to every good
educational program? And would it not be better to use scarce
educational dollars to develop curricula for space science data
that already exists?

Triana's projected cost is $50
million, about equal to the amount of money that NASA currently
allocates to the Education portion of its Academic Programs line
item. More than one NASA Administrator has questioned how much of
the agency's limited resources should be spent on education when
its primary goals are research and development.

Triana represents an inappropriate
doubling of NASA's educational spending at a time when the agency
is raiding the budgets of other critical science and technology
programs to pay for cost overruns in the International Space
Station. At a time when there are insufficient resources for the
Mars Exploration Program, requiring missions to be scaled back and
delayed. And at a time when NASA is inadequately funding the
development of future space transportation technologies.

It is understandable and laudable
that the Vice President wants all Americans to share his
enthusiastic wonder for space and the Earth's environment. The
program he initiated in 1994 called GLOBE (Global Learning and
Observations to Benefit the Environment) has been a success. GLOBE
is managed jointly by NOAA, NASA and the NSF, and involves the
gathering and reporting of weather observations by schools around
the world. Wouldn't an expansion of this existing program be a
better recipient of Gore's renewed enthusiasm?

Ultimately, the debate about Triana
comes down to questions of priorities, timing and politics --
questions that qualify Gore's proposal as truly the "stuff of
dreams." In this case, it is all the project should ever be. The
time is not right for Triana.